2G Smoking at idle and other symptoms

[spyderdrifter]

Ok I don't have much time at the moment to continue my research, so have a few questions. My car smokes at idle, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. It is white, and I know what that all entails. I'm hoping I don't have a head gasket issue, but the chance that I do is moderate to high. Anyway, I replaced the water pump 2 weeks ago after an overheating problem. The new water pump fixed it for a few days, then the overheating came back. I can keep the Temps down by keep the a/c fan on. Today I replaced the t-stat and rad cap with OEM parts and the burping process went quicker than before. While waiting for the fans to cycle, I noticed a stream a smoke coming from the exhaust manifold. If my manifold is cracked, could this be causing the overheating symptom? Or even the smoking from the muffler?

 

[NY 95 TSI AWD]

No. The cracked manifold will allow some hot exhaust gas in the engine bay, but It should not make the car overheat. The reason the smoke is coming from the manifold is because it is coming out of the engine, then out the muffler. You need to look elsewhere.

 

[thirsty]

G'day.
Are you good with spanners?
Head off, get it crack tested, new MLS head gasket (Cometic or the like), get the radiator cleaned out.
Refill it with a corrosion inhibitor, in Florida I believe you do not need glycol based to guard against freezing temps, and demineralised water. Should go a long way to solving your problem.
Cheers
Ross

 

[shakeandbake]

I would say your headgasket might be blown or in a worse case your head is warped from that heat, do a leakdown/compression test and go from there. a dead give away would be to take your sparkplugs out and look into your cylinders. If one is significantly cleaner than the rest then you know you blew yo head gasket.

 

[DSM1G90]

in Florida I believe you do not need glycol based to guard against freezing

"g'Day, Mate" Sorry to put the pet wallaby in the puddle of mud here, but we ALL need glycol base coolant, preferably a 50/50 mix, to lubricate the water pump bearing - be it in the middle of desert in WA-AU, or up north in Alaska-in our vehicles.

You losing coolant or similar and boiling coolant in the overflow bottle? This would show a blown HG also.

Good luck - DSM

 

[spyderdrifter]

The only coolant I was missing was what came out the overflow when it boiled over. I replaced my t-stat and rad cap yesterday and all was fine during my test drive and following idle test. Will give it a couple days to see if the issue rises again. If it does, I will be going with a new head gasket and decking job.

 

[DSM1G90]

Your latest test was like mine a few years back after I had a boilover and boiled coolant out of the overflow .. and thought I really blew a gasket, but no white smoke.

I took off the radiator and flushed it out with pressure water and one can imagine how much gunk resides in these things. Just gunk galore had resided in the bottom of the radiator - all rust an similar!

After that flush, I took out the t-stat, and flushed out the block and it was full of gunk with using the pressure water.

Put all back together with new t-stat, cap and gasket and it's been all good since and my coolant color is still nice and green with no hints of rust floating around as before.

Good luck = DSM

 

[92AWDHX40]

Good luck sounds like a blown hg.

 

[Dhan]

flushed it out with pressure water

What method did you use to do this?

I have a mobile pressure washer to hose down the side of the house and wash cars in the driveway. Did you use something like that?

My car smokes at idle, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. It is white, and I know what that all entails. I'm hoping I don't have a head gasket issue, but the chance that I do is moderate to high.?

It sounds like a HG issue or warped head to me. I'd do a compression test on all the cylinders and see where you're at, followed by a leak down test, to isolate the bad cylinder(s).

I don't know the history of the car, but I'd look at it as a great time to upgrade things if you can afford to do so.

BTW, use 50/50 coolant/water. We're in Colorado, it'll freeze here later this year

 

[DSM1G90]

I have a mobile pressure washer to hose down the side of the house and wash cars in the driveway. Did you use something like that?

Yep, one of those electric Karcher 1600 psi washers. I put the gun on spray to lower the psi, yet it really blew junk out of both radiator and block. I was doing the block until clear water was going out as it was going in.

When I blew out the radiator, I shot the water in the lower hose connection for that is where the junk was residing.

Thus, if anyone gets a car with tons of mileage on it and the coolant color is brown, a good pressure water blowout wouldn't hurt none.

Good luck - DSM

 

[spyderdrifter]

I always use 50/50 mix gotta love Colorado winters. I'm not sure I'd trust the compression results since after replacing the rings and pistons last November, my compression numbers were at 125psi across all cylinders (6 bolt). I know I honed the walls right and spaced the ring gaps and so on.